This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com

For 20 years, poverty has prompted local men to cross into Iran searching for work. Many are killed or jailed for drug smuggling by Iranian authorities, so the majority of Mir Ali’s residents are women and children.

Vice Media co-founder Suroosh Alvi is heading to Afghanistan to dig into the story of Mir Ali and says he will also report from Iran on the crackdown on the drug trade.

Some of Alvi’s journalism will become content for Vice News, a new Internet news channel that went live Tuesday and promises coverage of breaking news and analysis from around the world.

“We want to get into the war on drugs, look at the progressive rehab setups in Tehran and explore how the war in Afghanistan has had an impact on Iran,” Alvi says.

Article Continued Below

“The story will resonate with the Vice audience because, as you know, seeing what is really happening in Iran is rare, and what is most commonly reported is the nuclear issue and sanctions.”

Vice has come a long way since Alvi and two partners landed a government loan in 1994 and started Vice Magazine. “We were on a welfare make-work program . . . that got us $100 extra dollars on top of our welfare cheques.”

Since then, Vice has grown into a media giant, boasting a record label, a full-service media-planning division that helps other brands develop marketing plans to target young consumers, a TV series titles Vice on HBO — its second 12-episode newsmagazine season debuts Mar. 21 — and soon, Vice News.

“Our news is reported by youth, produced by youth,” says Alvi, 44.

It’s a strategy that has worked so far.

Vice employs 1,000 people in offices in 35 countries and has 4,000 freelance contributors. Vice.com draws 30 million unique visitors per month. As a Vice promotional video says: “We’re opening offices around the globe as fast as traditional media are closing them.”

Last fall, 21st Century Fox bought a 5-per-cent stake in Vice, valuing the company at $1.4 billion (U.S.). A spokesman for 21st Century Fox declined comment.

Ivor Shapiro, chair of Ryerson University’s journalism department, says media startups like Vice have an advantage over more-tenured rivals — most don’t have legacy costs such as union contracts and pensions.

“Today, you have to be nimble and able to adapt quickly in journalism,” Shapiro says. “Big institutions have built-up structures and change more slowly than smaller ones. Being a smaller, non-unionized operation is undoubtedly an advantage.”

Alvi concedes there are disadvantages to having such a young newsroom.

“The downside is chaos and lunacy, bitching and moaning by people who haven’t been out in the real world,” he says, adding that those shortcomings are trumped by the energetic vibe.

“We’re looking for meaningful and killer content for an audience who needs it, who feels a void because what they want isn’t being offered by the traditional mainstream media,” he says. “Look, at the story on Iraq. There was a fatigue about Iraq because there had been so many stories on the war. We followed this rock band, a really different take on the country, and the documentary won a ton of awards and was watched by millions of people.”

In advance of the launch of Vice News, the company recently sent 15 journalists for hostile environment training. More are to be dispatched for the training in coming weeks.

“I think it’s fair to say you’ll see our 21-year-old journalists in conflict zones around the world,” Alvi says. “Maybe we’ll have them work with a more senior producer, to help make sure the younger people won’t screw up.”

Even as Vice hopes to be viewed as a viable alternative to CNN or traditional newspapers, Alvi acknowledges that viewers and readers have been drawn to its gratuitous sexual content. Vice magazine has repeatedly featured photos of topless women, including one montage in 2011 that showed several young topless women tied up with rope.

This means, Alvi agrees, that his report on Afghanistan’s village of widows might share space on Vice’s web page with “an interview with a couple who have just had sex.”

More from the Toronto Star & Partners

LOADING

Copyright owned or licensed by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or distribution of this content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited and/or its licensors. To order copies of Toronto Star articles, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com